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Graphic Designer

Born and raised in Monrovia, California – Lauren Armenta is a graphic designer who specializes in branding, illustration, and packaging. She is a recent graduate from Chapman University with her BFA in Graphic Design and Minor in English. She is looking to gain creative experience and be a part of a team.Contact at TagYoureItDesign@gmail.com

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For my final media project, as vaguely mentioned before, I created a self portfolio website. This website acts as my very own platform to showcase the work I have done throughout my years at University and give people a little snippet of who I am. laurenarmenta.com was made with the sole intention of online exposure and getting noticed. As a designer we are constantly fighting to capture the attentions of audiences.

As mentioned in Austin Kleon’s book Show Your Work!, creatives thrive in what is referred to as a Scenius– what this means is a collective group that contributes ideas, makes connections and start conversations. Sharing ideas can lead to a snowball effect of even greater ideas. In today’d world, we join the world’s biggest scenius- the internet. This new form of media has allowed us to share ideas and contribute feedback on many people’s ideas. In a few clicks we can be anywhere in the world, creating conversation. Need an example?

His name is Tony. A guy in my graphic design graduating class decided to try for a Dribbble account. This online platform is one built and made of designers, all type of designers showing their ideas, work, and answering other designer questions. Tony (residing in California) has a client in France, Paris due to their connecting on Dribbble. This new form of media allows for connections like this to thrive from all over the globe. Tony putting his work online and becoming apart of a scenius has allowed him to be discovered.

So lets talk about techne. What tools we use and what tools we should use.

For my final I made a website for myself showcasing my portfolio. For designers and even non designers, here are a few extra elements to add to get your site interactive and things you can do to get noticed online.

If you go to my website, the first thing you see is a gif-a format for image files that supports both animated and static images. A gifcan be a good way to capture the attention of your audience.

On the right hand side I have a static line of social media buttons. Having social media allows you to connect on multiple platforms and join multiple sceniuses. You never know which clients have what kind of media, so if you are connected on multiple, odds are you can make more connections that way. A primary platform for professional contacts is Linkedin.

More interactive elements of a site are simple but effective features such as rollovers. Rollovers, surprise and engages the user to click through or view the rollover and its contents.

Navigation is also a huge factor in keeping a user focused and driving them to the content you want them to view. Static navigation is best because it allows the user to direct themselves to what they want to view and not get lost in the website and leave. Another useful tip is try to not outsource as much. the fewer clicks the better and you always want to grasp their attention to your content. It is great to hyperlink to other resourceful elements but for the most part stay focused on the important content of your site.

Other popular navigation includes the hamburger navigation. Click on the hyperlink, the graphic you see in the top right corner is a great example of a hamburger nav. It allows the user to browse freely and hide or show more content.

Combining navigation, rollover features with the use of color is also another engaging tactic. The use of color makes it easy to separate content, draw attention and add some personality to your website. For some helpful color psychology and design, check out this great book.

There are many components to add to a website to get a viewers attention. However, the most important part is drawing them there in the first place. As discussed in previous posts, putting yourself on the online map is a great way to gain exposure. But as a designer, join a scenius. It’s good to put yourself on the grid, but sharing ideas, forming connections and starting conversation is what will really get you noticed.

As many have you have been following, my new media class has allowed me to go pretty in depth within the artistic culture and more specifically street art. Today I am giving you a little snippet of my final project.

I know, I know, you’re all very excited. For those of you who didn’t catch the sarcasm or not excited at all here’s why you should be:

This project, like I have mentioned in a previous post, will talk about not just the importance of why you should be on the internet but how to do so and maintain everything to get yourself noticed. Now you may get excited.

We are going to switch gears for a bit. Instead of street artists we are going to dip our toes into the design world. Three main things to keep in mind:

1. Portfolio

2. Portfolio

3. PORTFOLIO

One of the key aspects of getting noticed as a designer is having a great… you guessed it, portfolio. But look around you, look at our world today. You see everyone glued to their phone, attached to their computer or stuck to a television. We are in a new media world. And with that note, my fellow designers, artists and bloggers I am arguing why you should have an online portfolio/profile over a printed one. This is going to be nothing about dissing print but all about how helpful the new media world can be for future opportunities.

Now why do this? I’ll tell you why, Because Its Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be. I get it I’m a college kid why listen, well because I have taken the advice of such people like Paul Arden, an advertising guru, and applied these things to my life to turn out some really great results. But Im not going to give away all the great books I’ve read just yet. For the good reads list you’ll have to read my Final project post coming soon.

In light of all this research collected over the course of this class and my four years studying as a designer, most of you may already know I have created my own website. As of now it is a Desktop only functional site but I am in the middle of making it compatible for other devices such as tablets and phones.

As a part of our final project we must select a topic and create a website for it. My discourse community is street art however im switching over my final project to help other artists like myself have an easier time getting noticed. With this being said, my final project website I chose to create was my own.

I did this to show helpful tips with designing, making, implementing your website and all your social media. Not feeling too much like a designer? No problem, I’ll also list some great sites that do all the heavy lifting. Until next time, check out some features, social media and navigation of my website laurenarmenta.com.